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Passion for turntables

Michael Lim

Disclaimer

Disclaimer :

I am not affiliated, associated with any turntable manufacturers or their agents. If in the course of my work, certain company, brand, trademark or their products are mentioned or referred to, is considered nominative use, and does not in any way imply any relationship and/or endorsement with the corresponding trademark owners, their products or brands.

Paul from United States has done a video on his double pulley installation in detail. He has shared the link to this video in vinylengine ( Rega forum : Michael Lim upgrades). Here's his feedback and his post in vinylengine:

Michael,

The double pulley has been installed and it works great. If you’re curious, you can see the documentation of my installation here:

For those who have not done the double pulley upgrade and are curious to see the installation and measured effects, I did a video which can be found here:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DUf0aU3O8XkThe installation was simple and I made the upgrade on my P3-24. I also did some tests using a single belt system which can be found here. While the stock table is good, the double pulley system does make it better in terms of speed control and stability. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DUf0aU3O8XkIn the future, I am looking to procure a test record where I can show more data on the single vs. double belt system but I think you can conclude that this upgrade is worthwhile if you want to go down this path. Hope folks that haven't made the jump yet find this useful.

Jos Cenens from Belgium has upgraded his NAD C552 with aluminium sub-platter and dual pulley. Here's his comments and upgraded system:

Dear Michael, Included a picture of my upgraded NAD C552. The upgrades went fine: the pulley installed without a problem, the sub-platter was indeed very tight
to get in as the air under the shaft could not get out easily, it took a few minutes before the platter was in place (I turned it around and gently pushed on the top spindle). The 2 silicone belts were also quite easy to put in place thanks to your instructions.

I now had a good week of listening and I do hear an improvement. The music sounds better, more steady, the details present on the record are easier to hear (almost in all records that I put on). I am all in all quite pleased with these improvements. As you can see on the picture I recently installed a new element (Ortofon 2M Blue) and that gave a boost to the turntable. Your pulley, aluminum sub platter and dual belts further improved the turntable and I conclude that the investment in the 2M Blue element is supported by your material. Regards, Jos Cenens Linden Belgium

It's interesting that first I received Brian Davis's feedback for my counterweight : "The improvement has been akin to cleaning a slightly dirty window , you can tell that it was dirty but you don't know what you've been missing until the dirt has been removed.... " (In my last post).

And Now, Keith (Canada) who has added not only counterweight, but motor isolation base has even more to say:

"It's not just like someone's wiped the grime off a dirty window, it's like the window is gone and nothing but natural, real sound is coming through. Overall the improvement is striking and the value phenomenal..."

Read more on Keith's feedback here:

Michael,Some feedback, also posted to vinyl engine: Motor baseI rec'd the Lim motor base and counter weight a couple of weeks ago and figured I'd provide some feedback after a minor setback, but overall a very positive experience. The motor base install went fairly well, mostly as per Michael's instructions. The act of prying the motor away from the plinth gave me some concern, but the sticky tape gave in like a cheap date and it was all over fairly quickly. I did have some head scratching about how to fit the pcb into the supplied case, but figured it out after a couple of beers.
I ended up needing 2 of the supplied shims to get the motor to the right height. The supplied feet are a little cheap-ish, but work for now (and really for the price of this upgrade I can hardly quibble about the feet) other than they are simply placed in the alum cups with no screws. My TT to is on a wall shelf, so room isolation is not a real issue. I ended up using a small piece of neoprene under the 3 feet and the motor base.

The counter weight went on easily as the rb900 end stub is different from other regas and attached with a hex bolt. In the end the stub does not get removed, but the sleeve is installed directly on the rega stub. Initially I found I had developed a bit of a wobble problem on some records, similar to the grado "dance" problem and was scratching my head to figure out what was going on. Eventually I found a couple of posts with similar issue with the dyna 17d3 and I tried the suggestion of adding a little mass to the headsheel (2 grams in my case) and with the extra mass and a re-set of the vtf, it seems all is now good. I emailed Michael a few times during this and he was always very quick to reply with suggestions to try to help. I have to start by saying this is really an incredible value for the improvement in sound for the relatively small price. Some of the things I noticed: Noise floor dropped a lot, much less dirt and cloud
Lf noise is just gone, no wow, nothing
I'm able to play at louder volume levels due to less noise, which really makes me happy
Bass attack improved, overall instrument attack is more realistic
Certain instruments have much more realism, eg tracy chapman's guitar on fast car is much more realistic
High freq energy is improved, percussion and other highs are crisper, less muddy with improved sustain or duration.
Imaging and sound positioning is far more solid, things stay in one place rather than move around sometimes.
The micro vibration, or the sense that an instrument like say a violin or an oboe is vibrating to make sound is far more obvious. The feeling and sound of the vibration is greatly enhanced. If you've ever sat in front of a cello you knew what I mean.

It's not just like someone's wiped the grime off a dirty window, it's like the window is gone and nothing but natural, real sound is coming through.

"The improvement has been akin to cleaning a slightly dirty window , you can tell that it was dirty but you don't know what you've been missing until the dirt has been removed.... " says Brian after the underslung counterweight upgrade.

Don't you think it's time you check if you need to clean a slightly dirty window .... :)

Here's feedback from Brian Davis of Toronto, Canada:

hi Michael

I received the counterweight last week on Friday , install went smooth no issues at all, I followed the detailed instructions you provided.

I would say that I'm very pleased with the overall quality of the piece and the contribution it's made to the sound of my turntable .

The improvement has been akin to cleaning a slightly dirty window , you can tell that it was dirty but you don't know what you've been missing until
the dirt has been removed , bass and midrange clarity has improved too.

One improvement that I've really noticed has been the quietness between songs on the record , it's just dead quiet on most my records .My thought on that is the stainless steel stub really silences the micro vibrations coming back up from the stylus
and into the tonearm.

Recently a Rega TT owner told me that he was very interested to add my motor isolation base to his beloved TT. But he was not keen to add another platform that completely covers the three cups which are meant for the Rega feet.

Is there a solution for that?

Don't worry... let me share with you my own Rega wall mounting rack. Can you see my motor isolation base sits comfortably below the plinth without affecting the original position of the feet? You notice my "sub-platform"?

Hope I have answered your question......

My RP6 with motor isolation base on Rega wall mounting rack

Motor isolation base with outboard PCB control on "sub-platform" ( PCB can be placed just behind the motor )